New Delhi: The BJP seems to be leading in early trendsin the elections to the three newly carved municipal corporations in Delhi, for which counting of votes began on Tuesday morning.

Early trends showed that Congress has a narrow lead in South Delhi Corporation over BJP. Congress leads in 12 wards while BJP is ahead in eight wards. BJP is leading in North Delhi in 13 seats while Congress is inching closer to it with leads in 10 seats for which trends are available. In East Delhi Corporation, Congress is leading in 11 seats while BJP is ahead in eight seats.

The counting for 272 wards is taking place in 33 centres across the city, a senior State Election Commission official said. Polling for all the 272 wards spread in three corporations -- East, South and North -- were held on Sunday in which 55 percent of the 1.15 crore voters exercised their franchise.

Congress and BJP are waiting with bated breaths for the results as stakes are high for both the national parties in the municipal polls, considered as a semifinal ahead of the Assembly elections next year.

There are 104 each wards in South and North Corporations and 64 in the East, of which 138 seats are reserved for women. South has the highest number of 904 candidates followed by North (885) and East (634).

In the 2007 polls to the undivided Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), BJP had bagged 36.17 percent of the around 42.35 lakh votes polled while Congress got 29.17 percent. BSP's vote share was 9.87 percent.